


Of Knights and Butter Knives

by Quecksilver_Eyes



Category: Chronicles of Narnia (Movies), Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Genre: Gen, eustace gets knighted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 03:30:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13515729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quecksilver_Eyes/pseuds/Quecksilver_Eyes
Summary: If Eustace had ever imagined being knighted, he would have imagined something like marble floor underneath his shins, uniform tight against his chest, a grown man kneeling in front of royalty, honoured and humbled. There would be peace and the queen would be beautiful and smiling and he wouldn’t flinch from the sword touching his shoulders.





	Of Knights and Butter Knives

If Eustace had ever imagined being knighted, he would have imagined something like marble floor underneath his shins, uniform tight against his chest, a grown man kneeling in front of royalty, honoured and humbled. There would be peace and the queen would be beautiful and smiling and he wouldn’t flinch from the sword touching his shoulders.

 

* * *

 

Instead, it goes something like this:

 

* * *

 

 

There is a dragon inside his skin breathing fire in his guts and his voice hasn’t yet dropped. Lucy is sitting on the kitchen table, her bare feet swinging back and forth, laughter shaking her pale shoulders. Peter waves around the knife he just used to spread butter on his bread. Edmund climbs onto the counter to get to the glasses Alberta keeps high in the shelves and Susan stands in the corner, lips painted red, in her petticoat and bra.

He tells them of a mouse and flying and the End of the World, tells them of the dragon. Susan stops stirring her coffee. “You were undragoned?”, she asks, her voice raspy and coarse.

Eustace shrugs. “Yes”, Lucy says and jumps on the floor. She hugs Eustace and Peter smiles at them.

 

* * *

 

He knights him on the tiled kitchen floor, and there’s a hole in Eustace’ trousers and the queen sips her coffee and leaves red stains on the mug.

“Know now that we, Peter the Magnificent, Susan the Gentle, Edmund the Just and Lucy the Valiant, by right of arms, Kings and Queens of Narnia, do dub you with Our sword”, Peter furrows his brows and Lucy laughs, “and by all that you hold sacred, true, and holy”, he touches Eustace’ left shoulder with the butter knife, “Once for Honor”, now the right shoulder, “Twice for Duty”, and, finally, the top of his head, “Thrice for Chivalry. Arise, Sir Eustace the Undragoned.”

Edmund falls off the counter and Susan snorts into her coffee.

 

* * *

  


(Later, when Susan has slipped into her dress and bid them all goodbye, a smile on her lips, he plays chess with Edmund. “Is it valid?”, he asks, as he moves his horse and Edmund nods as he takes out his Queen. “Peter is High King. He could knight you with a stick if he wanted to.”

Lucy laughs and the dragon in Eustace curls up just below his lungs.)

 

* * *

 

 

[Edmund beats him in three moves.]


End file.
